Mission Affordable Housing

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MISSION

AFFORDABLE HOUSING 2008

Prof. Akhtar Chauhan, FIIA,

Director,Rizvi College of Architecture


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National Context

Indian cities are marked by their slums. Thesecommunities of the urban poor are the result oflack of affordable housing in Indian cities. These

are known by various names such aszopadpatties in Mumbai, Jhuggi-jhopadis inDelhi and Bastas in Kolkatta or zupadawasis in

Ahmedabad. These slums are the grim reality ofthe failure of our planning process at national,

state and urban level to address the issue ofpoverty and shelter needs of the poor andunderprivileged people in rural and urban areas.


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National Context

As per the government sources, there were 45.7million slum dwellers in 1991 accounting for21.5% of the urban population. As per 2001census we have 40.6 million slum dwellers in thecountry, living in 607 towns and cities and theyaccount for 22.8% of the urban population.

However, if we look at the poverty figures, wehad 193.2 million rural poor and 67.1 millionurban poor i.e. 260.3 million poor people whocan not afford a proper shelter because theirincome is inadequate to support their primaryrequirements for sustenance.


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National Context

The twentieth century planning promised

us garden cities and suburbs. The urban

chaos and congestion that marked most ofthe European cities in wake of the

Industrial revolution, stirred the minds and

hearts of many a scholar, thinker and

planner. Their studies, researches andvision gave us the modern planning

process.


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National Context

India adopted the process of national planning

and urban planning to address the key issues of

poverty, inequality and social injustice. Pandit

Jawaharlal Nehru provided the leadership atnational level with constituting a planning

committee in Indian National Congress to take

up the challenge of developing a modern India.

Inspired by freedom struggle, many Indianscholars and planners contributed to preparation

of development plans for our cities and country.


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National Context

Rather than viewing housing as a product

we should be considering housing as an

on going process of providing, maintainingand managing our shelter needs. We

should be concerned with human, social,

physical, financial, organizational,

architectural, engineering, services,environmental, legal and governance

issues.


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National Context

The alternative model should be addressing thekey issues of Social relevance, culturalappropriateness, economic affordability,

environmental sustainability and architecturalaesthetics and expression that reflect ourhumane philosophy.

This leads us to development of a humaneplanning process, humane architecture andhumane habitat. The 73rd and 74thconstitutional amendments provide us with theopportunity to restructure our planning process.


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National Context

We have been pursuing a planning model

that needs to be critically reviewed and

restructured. Rather than planting orsuper-imposing borrowed models from the

West, we need to reinvent a planning

process that addresses the human, social

and environmental issues and enables usto promote sustainable development for

all.


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Housing Process

Housing is a third important basic necessity after

food and clothing. In classical economics it was

always considered as a major item for

consumption sector. In contemporary times,housing is rightly seen as a major economic

activity. The construction sector accounts for

more than 50 % of the development outlays. It

ranks third among top 14 sectors of economy forits direct, indirect and induced effect on all

sectors of economy.


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Housing Process

The Government of India adopted a new Housing andHabitat Policy in 1998 after much debate. It advocatesthat Government create a facilitating environment forhousing development.

This is a major shift in governmental policy from theearlier attempts to provide housing. The policy calls forinvolving all stakeholders in shaping housingdevelopment programmes.

It suggests public-private partnership to meet the

housing needs of various sections of people. Housingactivities at present are largely in private sector in bothrural and urban areas.


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Housing Process

Availability and accessibility to Land is the mostimportant issue in housing process. The land supply inthe cities and towns is constrained by existing legalframework including the Land Revenue Act, Land

Reforms Act, Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Act,Rent Control Act, Town and Regional Planning Acts andUrban Development and Control Acts in various states.The demand for repeal of some of these act is aimed atreleasing urban land for housing activity and urban

renewal programmes. However the ground realities incities show that a lot of land has been wasted andneglected over the decades which could have been usedfor social housing without much difficulty.


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Housing Process

Mobilizing adequate finance for supporting housingactivity has been a major issue in housing development.In order to facilitate priority sector lending theGovernment has undertaken facilitating measures

through Reserve Bank of India. As a result of thisinitiative institutional credit disbursement has grown fromRs. 5,767 crores in 97-98 to 12,626 crore in 2000-01.The National Housing Bank through its network of 28housing finance institutions managed the disbursementfor housing activities. Housing and Urban DevelopmentCorporation earmarked 55% of its funds for housing forthe economically weaker section (EWS) and low incomegroups (LIG) with differential interest rates. Over theyears HUDCO has supported 33.82 lakh units.


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Housing Process

Housing and Urban Development Corporationearmarked 55% of its funds for housing for theeconomically weaker section (EWS) and low incomegroups (LIG) with differential interest rates. Over the

years HUDCO has supported 33.82 lakh units. In spite ofsuch a major initiative on part of the Central Governmentthe situation in cities has not changed radically. Thehousing deficit in urban areas was estimated at 8.89million units at the beginning of 10th Five Year Plan. But

if we include the old housing stock that requiredreconstruction and repairs, the figure worked to 22.44million units. In the 11th Five Year Plan the housingrequirement is 26.53 million including the backlog!


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Housing Process

The Government of India launched Jawaharlal NehruNational Urban Renewal Mission on 3 December 2005 toundertake a massive programme of urban renewal with abudget of 50,000 crore including improvement of urban

infrastructure, basic services, transportation andstrengthening planning process in 63 major cities acrossthe country.

State governments have taken initiative to address the

issue of urban restructuring and urban renewal under theprogramme. The problems in small and medium scaletown also need to be addressed in a similar way.


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Housing Process

The total investment requirement for meeting thehousing targets in the 11th Five Year Plan isworked out as 36 1318.10 crore out of which 14

7195 is for housing shortage and 21 4123 fornew additional housing requirements includinghousing for the poor.

The government aims at creating an enablinghousing market with the help of flexibleinstruments to encourage rental housing andaddressing the housing needs of the poor.


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Mumbai:

Mumbai had its first development plan prepared byeminent engineers and planners way back in 1948. Thedevelopment plan of 1965 took up the issue of providinghousing to the urban poor. The scheme of providinghousing for the industrial workers by BombayImprovement Trust led to development of chawls.

This was followed by constituting a State Housing Boardand Slum Improvement Board. Now we have a

Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authorityand Slum Redevelopment Authorities. So it is not thatthe Government at national, state and city level isoblivious of the problem. Yet, their rate of success inimplementation of the programmes leaves lot to bedesired.


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Mumbai:

Mumbai, the city of hope and dreams, presents a verycontradictory picture to any observer. While on one sidewe have the emerging global city, with its sky-scrapers,luxurious hotels, malls and multiplexes, flyovers and new

airport buildings and on the other we have numerousslums dotting the urbanscape reminding us about thesocial reality of failure of our development plans.

Mumbai has 6.5 million people living in a slum that is

about 15% of the total slum population of the country.Delhi has 1.9 million slums dwellers while Kolkata has1.5 million followed by Chennai, Nagpur, Hyderabad andother cities.


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Mumbai:

People have to take the initiative to constitute localorganizations such as Nivara Haak Suraksha Samitiwhere Architect P.K. Das has been active, ArchitectSharad Mahajan Maharashtra Social Housing and Action

League (MASHAL) and Rajendra Shahs Vikas NGO inAhmedabad.

However, these are few in number. What we need ismushrooming of genuine local co-operatives at mohalla

level with professionals like architects, engineers andplanners actively collaborating with them in their struggleto solve the issue of affordable housing for all.


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Mumbai

This has to be supported by governmental organizationto manage housing finance at low and affordable interestrate. Hudco has done tremendous service to the nationwith its initiative in this regard. Housing andDevelopment Finance Corporation Ltd (HDFC) is doing agreat service in this sector but we need to enlarge thescope and range of financing institutions to be able toreach out to the urban poor.

We can not afford to have high interest rates and hope to

solve the issue of affordable housing in near future. 93%of the housing loans is for value acceding 1 lakh, 73% ofloans is for the segment acceding 3 lakhs, thus it is clearthat the urban poor are not getting the advantage of theloan facilities.


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During my post-graduate studies at the School of

Planning, Centre for Environmental Planning and

Technology (CEPT), Ahmedabad in 1973-75, I had a

unique opportunity to participate in the struggle of slum

dwellers with my fellow students.

In fact, I stayed in Gulbai Tekra slum community for a

year, to consolidate the newly founded voluntary

organization and to develop in depth understanding ofthe issues involved. The following are some of the vital

lessons that I have learnt from them:

Learning from Slums


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Learning from Slums

1. The minimum shelters of slums are some thesmallest dwellings possible.

The living spaces are not composed of typicalrooms as mono-functional units. They areconceived as multi-functional living spaces, withover-lapping functions of living and familyinteractions. The homes in the slums are,perhaps, the best examples of the most optimumutilization of living space.


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Learning from Slums

2. Slums utilization of urban land for housing calls forcareful studies.

It is observed that slums use up to 80% of the land asground-coverage for their housing. This enables them tohave much higher densities without going higher thanground plus one or half storey.

As a typology, it is in total contrast to modernistapproach of high-rise development with less groundcover.


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Learning from Slums

3. Slum dwellings are peoples own solution fortheir housing needs.

They are cheapest and most affordable minimalshelters made possible in a given area. The costof land, basic services and the minimum shelterare not only minimal but can be paid in partsover a period.

Whereas most of the public and private sectorhousing is beyond the capacity of slum-dwellersand therefore, unaffordable.


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Learning from Slums

4. Slums mushroom in parts of urbanizing area withminimum of administrative control.

In other words, they grow in areas which provide them

with maximum freedom to build. In the process, theslum-dwellers transform most inhospitable and neglectedurban land for housing and community building. Theseinclude land adjoining marshes, creeks, streams, anddrainage channels, steep slopes of hills, left over spacesnear transportation network of road, railways and even

airports!

The slum-dwellers local actions to reclaim land for theirshelters and community facilities, teaches us the needfor micro-planning for positive use of natural resourcesincluding land, water and vegetation.


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Learning from Slums

5. Most of the slum areas are not serviced

initially by municipal corporations.

However, these services are extended over time

as the slum-dwellers constitute a sizable urban

population. The basic services of access, water

supply, drainage and energy are met over period

of time. This incremental infrastructure

development is the key to growth of slums.


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Learning from Slums

6. Slums are not built as a result of ego-centricgesture of an individual or a corporation. Slumsare the constructive results of collective efforts of

a group or community.

Development and maintenance of slums calls foron-going collective organization of landdevelopment, shelter-making, obtaining basicservices and ensuring social security. It is apositive expression of peoples participation indevelopment process.


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Learning from Slums

7. Slums are vibrant communities of people. Theyincorporate a whole range of social and communityspaces and facilities.

From the most minimal space for social interaction at thedoor step to the optimum community spaces for varioussocial and cultural activities. They have an ever evolvingnetwork of social institutions. Central to their social well-being is the concept of sacred space. Every slum has a

niche, small shrine or a temple, mosque or churchdepending on their faith. This provides them with muchneeded spiritual strength to survive and struggle.


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Learning from Slums

8. The slum-dwellers use minimum buildingmaterials to create their living space.

They use easily available local buildingmaterials. Often they use old and used tinsheets, timber rafters, joists and posts, countrytiles, plastic sheets and other recycled materials.However, their limited technical expertise is putto the best creative use to meet their shelterneeds.


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Learning from Slums

9. The minimal shelters of slum dwellers are notstatic houses.

They grow as the needs of the resident increasewith growth of the family, limited only the abilityand resources. This freedom to build and meetthe social and economic requirements throughincremental growth is crucial to the success ofthe slums. This is consistently reflected in theincremental growth of dwelling units, house-groups / rows and the slum community as awhole.


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Learning from Slums

10. At the core of the slums is a concept ofsustainable development.

The slum dwellers and community make theconscious decisions for every individual, groupor community action through a critical analysisfor its necessity, viability and priority as asustainable development action. This enablesthe slums to sustain its development andconsolidate its existence in an urban area.


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A Vision: Housing for All

Goal

The primary goal is to provide affordablehousing for all, especially the urban poor

with a proper standard of built environment

and a better quality of life.

We recommend the following missions of

development.


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Mission Affordable Housing

We have to develop not just housing unitbut affordable housing. The criteria of

affordability should be established from

the point of familys income and ability to

pay as well as the city and the statesresources for housing development.


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Mission Appropriate Technology

We can not develop affordable housingwithout an appropriate technology. Wehave to avoid outdated technologies,which waste materials and humanresources. We have to select the optimummix of appropriate technologies for variouscomponents of housing.


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Mission Appropriate Technology

We can not develop affordable housingwithout an appropriate technology. Wehave to avoid outdated technologies,which waste materials and humanresources. We have to select the optimummix of appropriate technologies for variouscomponents of housing.


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Mission Community Development

Housing development will be incompletewithout community development. We can

not succeed in construction of houses

without developing the communities

through their active participation in theentire process of development.


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Mission Urban Infrastructure

Housing development at such a vast city level

magnitude will require a supporting andsustainable urban infrastructure. This wouldnecessitate adequate water supply, drainage,sewerage, garbage disposal, energy supply,transportation and communication networks,enabling Mumbai to emerge as a city with astate-of-art infrastructure.


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Mission Urban Management

We can not realize these objectives without an

urban management plan. We have to gear upthe state, civic, corporate, co-operatives andprofessions for the tasks of urban managementand housing development. A de-centralised butstructured model would be needed to respond tothe complexities of the tasks and magnitude ofthe problem.


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Mission Environment Enrichment

We want to create a beautiful Mumbai, acity with a much better quality of living

environment. We want to provide the

present and the future citizens of Mumbai

with a high quality of life.


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Mission Mumbai as a World City

We want Mumbai to become a World Cityin its true sense, where people from allover the world would come to do business,shopping, education, health care andtourism. This would require an attractiveimage for the city supported by the state-of-art infrastructure and services.


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Affordable Housing Agenda

Housing to be successful can not be treated as a merecommodity. It is not just a physical artifact. It is alsoabout the feelings, emotions, dreams and achievementsfused into holistic concepts that transforms houses intohomes for each family and develops areas into vibrantcommunities for the people.

Housing for All action programme shall relate to eachand every citizen of Mumbai as test case and hopefullyall the citizens of the country, and who knows, this would

inspire the rest of the world community!

India can act as a beacon for shaping of humane habitat.


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Humane Habitat Movement

We constituted International Association forHumaneHabitat (IAHH) in 1999 with an International Conferenceon Humane Habitat (ICHH). The theme of the first ICHHwas Affordable Housing for All. We network with 15

universities in different countries.

We have followed it up with a programme of annualinternational conference and an international studentdesign competition to create a global societal awareness

about the critical issues in shaping of our habitat. 90Student teams from 20 countries participated in 6thIAHH International Student Design Competition.


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Humane Habitat Movement

We have constituted local Human HabitatForums to take up the local issues andcampaigns.

Affordable housing for all should not be amere dream.

It should be taken up as an on goingmission to enable each and every humanbeing to have a safe, secure, comfortable,healthy, stimulating and enriching livingenvironment - humane habitat.


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Humane Habitat Mission

1. Planning process will have to be restructured

through legal reforms to allow citizens

participation from the grass roots and locality

level to the highest level at the top. Thepresent planning process involves people only

at the end of plan formulation and the way

objections and suggestions are dealt with

leaves a lot to be desired. The 73rd and 74thconstitutional amendments provide for greater

participation by people at local levels.


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2. In the meanwhile, citizens shall have to take initiative ineach area of their concern, to form forums, actiongroups and research groups, to deal with importantissues such as:Employment generation in services sector,

Manufacturing, formal and informal sectors;Addressing the needs of the handicapped, poor, underprivileged andexploited sections;

Environment; affordable housing and mixed housing;

Slum rehabilitation and redevelopment;

Sustainable public transportation systems and facilities for pedestrian,

Garbage disposal and sewage treatment, water harvesting and waterrecycling;

Recreation and sports facilities; cultural and social facilities, educationand health facilities; community centres, welfare centres and sacredplaces; citizens participation and good governance.


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3. Growing unemployment and under-employment of vastsections of people leads to discontent, disharmony andviolence. Therefore, employment generation inservices, manufacturing, businesses, trade and

transportation, construction, both in formal andinformal sectors is the key to urban regeneration. Notonly the textile mills but vast areas of Mumbaisindustrial zones are lying idle.

These areas are being used as commercial and

shopping centers, while new industries are notencouraged to come up in the city. We need a newindustrial policy to revitalize and promote sustainableindustrial development.


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4. The city should be restructured from within. Each node/ station area should be transformed as a town centrewith adequate facilities for work, commercial,shopping, public institutions, cultural and entertainment

facilities, public places and inter-modal transport inter-changes.

Local authorities should be designated as precincts anddesigned accordingly. Urban designs for nodes and

town centers should be obtained through opencompetitions by civic authorities.


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5. The residential areas should be redesigned and redeveloped asto evolve into sustainable communities and neighborhoods. Thiswould require detailed planning and designing to identify theneeds of each area with its given population and cultural groups.

Locating and integrating various social, educational and culturalfacilities with recreation and sports facilities with pedestrian pathsand cycle tracts is the key to transforming the quality of livingenvironment.

Spaces for elderly, women and children and access to thephysically challenged should be ensured through universal

design. Building bye-laws should be suitably amended to facilitateplanning and design of humane and sustainable architecture.


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6. The environmental pollution within our cities and townsneed to be tackled urgently. It is leading to a very highrate of spread of diseases like cancer, hypertensionand stress.

It leads to ill health and a high death toll. Pollutionwatch in different areas, roads and junctions should bemade mandatory. Strict action should be taken toensure proper environmental standards.

Research institutions should be monitoring the state ofhealth in our settlements and remedial measuresundertaken to reduce stress and strain and to promotehealth-care for all.


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7. The conservation, care and enrichment ofenvironment: land, water bodies, air, flora and faunahave to be given a high priority in our developmentstrategy.

These have to be identified and mapped. Strategies fortheir conservation should be delineated.

Detailed planning and designing should be undertakento enrich environment. These could be integrated withsacred spaces, public places, social and culturalfacilities and recreation and sports facilities.


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8. Transportation systems should be designed to servicethe city and areas in an affordable and sustainableway.

The present automobile centric transportation planningshould be restructured to give higher priority to publictransportation in people centric transportation strategy.

Trains, tramways, water ways, cycle tracts andpedestrian pathways / sidewalks should be given dueconsideration along with road-ways and high-ways.


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9. Water harvesting and recycling of waste-watershould be undertaken in an integrated mannerrather than in a piece meal way.

Garbage and refuse disposal and recyclingshould be a standard practice rather thanoccasional symbolic gestures.

Sewage treatment and storm water drainageshould be managed with greater efficiency andhigher environmental standards.


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10. Education and research for restructuring ofhuman settlements should be integrated intolearning.

Inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinaryprogrammes and of under-graduate, post-graduate and doctoral studies should bedeveloped in related fields of urban sociology,economics, geography, architecture,engineering, urban and regional planning, lawand management.


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The issue of affordable housing is thus anintegral component of the strategies fortransforming the quality of our habitat.

We need to launch and sustain an ongoingstruggle for humanizing our habitats.

We need humane housing policy. We require a

humane action programme for affordablehousing for all. Let us resolve today, tomorrowwill be too late!


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References

11th Five Year Plan 2007 -2013,

Urban Infrastructure, Housing, Basic Servicesand Poverty Alleviation,

Government of India, 2007

10th Five Year Plan, 2002-2007,

Volume II,

Sectoral Policies and Programmes, Government of India, 2002


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References

Akhtar Chauhan:

Affordable Housing for All Paper presented at the architecture aus der fabrik

International conference

Held at Technische Universitaet Graz, Austria, October

2002.

Published in the conference document published by

Springer Wien New York ISBN No. 3-211-83869-4


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